Thousands of children and young people from across Victoria have devoured thousands of books over the past few months as part of the Premiers' Reading Challenge (PRC).
This year more than 8,000 children participated in the Early Years component of the PRC, that also included a competition to challenge children from zero to five years old to read or experience 40 books with the help of their families.
Starfish Early Learning Centre in Blackburn South and Marie Williams Kindergarten in Kilmore were the lucky winners the PRC Early Years competition. They each received 100 books thanks to Penguin Random House Australia, which partnered with the Andrews Labor Government for this initiative.
Starfish Early Learning Centre Blackburn South director Cathy Kimbel says they are excited to win new books.
'There's a whole lot of different books for different ages so we can share across the service,' Cathy says.
The Challenge is an important literacy initiative that encourages more children and young people to read more often.
This year’s participants have read more than 4.4 million books as part of challenge, breaking the record of 4.1 million books which was set last year.
Since the Premiers’ Reading Challenge began 14 years ago almost 2.8 million students and children have read more than 45 million books.
Find out more information on the Challenge.